Tag Archives: entrepreneur

Mad Success: Lucinda Scala Quinn on Management, Martha, Motherhood, Men, and Improvising a Life

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Words by Molly Hays
Photography by Jacklyn Greenberg

If a proper success story should read like a résumé, all steady build and single-minded trajectory, don’t tell Lucinda Scala Quinn. In 2000, she was home full-time with her three young sons, “fully immersed in motherhood.” Today, she’s a four-time author, entrepreneur, television host, and Executive Food Editor at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. “My life has really been an improvisation,” she says. Clearly, this hasn’t been an issue.
In the Beginning
Looking back, it’s easy to see the underpinnings of Scala Quinn’s success. Growing up, good homemade food was the norm, and the glue that gathered extended family together. “I was in an environment that felt good. I felt safe and secure and nourished.” Add to that the “social interactions with multiple relatives, and it just felt amazing to be IN it.”
Small surprise, then, that she began cooking professionally as a teenager. She enjoyed it, excelled at it, moved to New York to pursue it, and then? Walked away. When her sons were born—she has three, Calder (26), Miles (22), and Luca (19)—she switched gears. “I just had this gut sense that I really needed to be rooted where I was.” Freelance writing and odd catering gigs aside, she left the fast track to be home with her boys.

It wasn’t easy.

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Stiletto Network

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Written by Megan Smith
Artwork by Janet Hill

Purely out of curiosity and on her own dime, New York Times writer Pamela Ryckman flew to Silicon Valley in 2010 where fifty of the nation’s most recognized, influential businesswomen were uniting at the Alley to the Valley Summit.

For this financial services expert turned journalist, the trip would become a series of ah-ha moments and revelations that would not only re-define Pamela’s view of the modern businesswoman, but build a platform for her to share with the world how the culture for women in business has undoubtedly shifted. “What surprised me most was that the room was full of powerhouse women who looked like women! They were feminine and fashionable. They wore stiletto heels and talked about healthy hair. They defied the stereotype of strong women in business. They were unabashedly women.”

Spend five minutes with Pamela, and the way you perceive the word ‘networking’ will forever be transformed. When she speaks about the connecting power of women, each word packs channeled energy and focused passion. It’s utterly contagious. Which is a beautiful thing, because, without a doubt, this ‘love story’ of women doing what women have always done—bonding together, from Girl Scouts to carpool to the PTA—is finally re-designing the corporate ladder. In fact, that steep corporate ladder is looking a lot more like a swinging bridge ropes course these days: tightly netted cords and knots interweaving and intersecting to make navigating the business world adventurous and experiential.

With a listening ear and a journalistic thirst, Pamela discovered much more than topics of social change, corporate philanthropy, politics and gender issues were being discussed in Silicon Valley that week. It was the side conversations these women were having about their networking dinner groups that perked her ears. Nearly all, with career experience unheard of in their mothers’ era, were connecting deeply with other women on a regular basis through the most basic ritual known to humankind: a meal. Pamela was captivated. She probed further, needing to know more. What she found over the course of several months after the Summit, through dozens of consequent interviews, phone calls and travels, was that these networks are emerging everywhere. Women from coast to coast are coming alongside each other, propelling one another forward and finding likeminded camaraderie across industry lines. Women with smarts, style and, of course, a dazzling pair of stilettos.

In May 2013, her book, Stiletto Network: Inside the Women’s Power Circles That Are Changing the Face of Business, launched with a hefty stream of press and buzz leading the way. “While researching for the book, I innately felt I was onto something.” She likens the experience to a starburst effect with leads and connections rapidly turning her ideas and hunches into a 100-page manuscript. Having personally reaped the benefits of this ‘stiletto network,’ Pamela attributes its power to two things: evolution and revolution. “For the first time in history, women have self-made wealth and are opening up their rolodexes to help other women. They’re taking risks for each other, which never would have happened 20 or more years ago when there was just one seat in the boardroom for a lady, and each was vying for it.” In terms of revolution, Pamela sees firsthand how technology is transforming the unifying power of women in the workplace. “Women have always been relationship maintainers. We are the ones carrying the family ties. These skills that have been honed for generations are now infiltrating the online world and connecting women across a multitude of fields.”

There’s something in Pamela’s voice when she speaks about this subject that indicates she’s only caught a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg. “The book proves the power of its thesis. Women connect, get behind each other and propel one another forward. You don’t have to be isolated in your work. Pick up your head and let someone provide the spark to move you forward.”

Pamela’s career journey itself also proves the power of her thesis. After years in the finance world, consulting and working for companies like Goldman Sachs, she had her ‘come to Jesus’ moment while pregnant with her first son. For as long as she could remember, she wanted to be a writer. Taking the leap, she went back to grad school to study journalism and became “the oldest pregnant intern at the NY Sun.” Her own struggle moving through a maze of competitors in a teeming publishing industry testified to the results of women going to bat for one another. “I was in a new industry trying to navigate my way into a career, with kids. It ended up that every opportunity I got came through a woman. They were the ones who could think outside the box with me and see me as a viable candidate.”

Don’t for one second question Pamela’s ability to balance life as a wife, mom of three young boys, freelance writer and book author…she’ll quickly nip that in the bud. She resolutely chooses to follow passion, not balance, in all areas of her life. She’s equally as passionate about lunch dates with her young boys at the local diner as she is about discovering those idiosyncrasies that make women unite. “I love learning what holds these women’s groups together because at the end of the day, it’s all about friendships. It’s organic and fluid. That’s the glue.”

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The Model Activist: Summer Rayne Oakes

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Words by Pamela Sutton
Photography by Jacklyn Greenberg

“I’m the person who likes to take the machete to clear the path so other people can walk it.”
Summer Rayne Oakes

Our altruistic passions can become our career.  And while we may not understand the path to create this, it is possible to use ingenious ideas and passionate activism to impact the world. Because where integrity and inspiration meet is the key to successful social entrepreneurship, and a business, without a doubt, can be built around a passion when one puts a value on principles and knowledge. Summer Rayne Oakes has proved just that, finding her niche in the sphere of environmental sustainability and creating a profession without losing the soul of convictions.

As a child, Summer Rayne’s backyard in Northeastern Pennsylvania sparked her curiosity for the natural world. No one could have known that this budding brown-haired scientist, with her nose perpetually in a brightly-bound yellow National Geographic, would eventually become a modern-day ethical bohemian, honored as the World’s First Eco Model, and create an environmental social platform through a most unlikely avenue: the fashion industry. And yet, she did.

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Whitney Rockley: Living the Dream as a Canadian Venture Capitalist

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Words by Cheryl Arkison
Photography by Lora Vertue

When most people say that they are living the dream, they usually mean a big house by the ocean and time to do all their dream hobbies like surfing, gardening, or lunching in fine restaurants. For Whitney Rockley it means owning her own business.

As a kid, she only ever wanted to create and own her own business. Her career after school started in environmental policy work, hardly the stuff of entrepreneurship. A swing through San Francisco brought her into the starched shirts of the venture capital world. A world she embraced. Stints in Calgary, London, Zurich, and now in Toronto sealed her place in this world. Despite years of backing businesses and seeing entrepreneurs both thrive and wither, she never lost sight of that childhood dream. “Venture capitalists don’t know what it is like to be an entrepreneur. Most don’t know what it is like to sit in the trenches and go right to the edge to put everything on the line.” Whitney describes her traditional, professional world full of calculated risk. But that is hardly the world for someone who wants to own their own business, is it?

Anticipating a major shake-up in her industry 18 months ago, Whitney and a colleague spent some time analyzing and dreaming. They asked themselves what they were seeing that is so big it isn’t going to go off trend and where they expected a phenomenal acceleration of technology. The answer, to them, lay in making existing infrastructure of big industry ‘smarter’, particularly as it works for the water, power, oil and gas, transportation, and building efficiency sectors. These sectors are where she and her business partner had success in the past. So they locked arms, took a deep breath, and started McRock Capital in March 2012. Now they are entrepreneurs as well as venture capitalists. And nothing could make Whitney happier.
“Personally, it is the most amazing – full-stop – thing I’ve ever done. I expected to be exhausted, but it is the opposite. Your energy comes from this place that is so real.”

This is despite the risk it takes to live her dream. Whitney and her business partner are financing themselves as they seek to back success. The vast majority of venture capital funds are established firms with backing from financial institutions, corporations, or high net worth family offices. It is rare to see start-up venture capitalists, even more rare for a woman to be leading it and for that firm to be started in Canada. “It takes a lot of courage to start a fund. It’s binary – you either raise a fund or you don’t. We did it because we are passionate about what we are doing and want to build the most successful venture fund in the world. We think it is contagious when you love what you do and are good at it. Investors will back us because we have a successful track record, a compelling investment strategy and are respected in the industry.”

 Thankfully, both Whitney and her business partner have strong family support for such a risky adventure. Whitney has been married for 15 years. She and her husband have two children, ages 10 and 11. The family has moved with her for her career and they back her now as she takes on this challenge.“There is a lot of holding breath, but also unwavering support,” says Whitney. She adds that her kids are old enough to understand what she is doing and the sacrifices it takes. She believes in showing them it is okay to take risks. “As long as the family unit is strong we can go through anything.”

 It might be the Tae Kwon Do she practices with her daughter, or it might be her sense of humor, but Whitney manages to keep a level head about this new venture.

With Whitney and her business partner financing their firm, as well as investing themselves and gathering outside investors, they are essentially paying twice for every investment. It is a harsh way to run things, but important to them as they run the firm their way. Whitney describes it as “personal funding by two passionate people.” The entrepreneurs get it, but they have to walk the investors through the model. Entrepreneurs also get the injection of personality McRock Capital put into their business. They are the firm, they are the brand. It made perfect sense to Whitney and her business partner to make their brand an honest reflection of themselves as individuals. On their website they’ve got videos tracking their journey – finding an office, the perils of business travel, fundraising efforts, and even homage to one of their biggest supporters. It is this humor, this personal side that sets them apart from the other venture capital firms. And it appeals to the entrepreneurs. They get the risks and the shot of personality. Entrepreneurs are used to selling themselves; McRock Capital is no different. Like all entrepreneurs, she has commitment and the right attitude. “My mantra is Positivity. Try to be eternally positive. Dispel negativity. Tell yourself you are doing it and it will happen. And be grateful for what you have.”

 Gratitude and the positivity are what make living the dream possible. Sure, there is hard work and boundless energy, but knowing what it takes to get where you are and having the right attitude to stay there make the dream a reality. “Make no mistake, we are still in the trenches. But 2013 is our year. We will get it off the ground. It’s been mental, but we are so excited.” When I asked venture capitalist and entrepreneur Whitney what her superpower would be if she had one, she asked for boundless energy, relentlessness. “Where nothing can take you down.”This, coming from a woman taking on a new business model in the venture capital world. From a woman with two kids and a burgeoning Tae Kwon Do habit. From a woman already living her dream.

 

Whitney’s Word Play

Sunshine – Beautiful
Cliff – Jump
Balance – Hard
Rejection – Tough
Purse – Don’t Care
Twitter – Effective
Perfection – Ugly
Fun – Yay!
Growth – Life
Speed – Inevitable
Cake – Yummy
Money – Outcome
Mentor – Grateful
Whiskey – Armchair
Darts – Bull’s-eye
Risk – Living
Friends – Precious
Peace – The Ultimate End Goal
Advice – Welcome
Sleep – Not Enough
Dream – Big

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